Personal workspaces typically represent partitioned areas in which an individual may perform various tasks with minimal distractions. A well-known example of a personal workspace in a common office environment is a cubicle. The conventional cubicle comprises an at least partially enclosed area that is separated from neighboring workspaces by some sort of wall structure or partition. Generally, at least some horizontal work surfaces may be suspended from such wall structures or partitions, as well as shelving, overhead storages and other office elements. Examples of personal workspaces in the academic environment may include library carrels, laboratories and dormitories. Individuals often retreat to these spaces in order to focus on their studies. In the business travel environment, a personal workspace may include a hotel room, an airplane seat and a train compartment. Basically, any designated area that protects the working individual against external distractions and/or generally fosters working conditions may constitute a personal workspace.
In some circumstances, an occupant of a workspace such as a cubicle may prefer to customize and install various office elements in her workspace according to her needs or preferences. Accordingly, cubicles may be designed to afford at least some degree of configurability to the occupant. Often the occupant may be somewhat limited, however, in her options for configuration due to the fixed locations of desk space, shelving, and the like, as well as the fixed locations of various electrical elements, such as electrical power outlets, phone connections, and computer/network connections. For example, an occupant generally could not configure her cubicle in a manner that prevents her computer from accessing an electrical outlet and/or network connection. Other electrical appliances within the cubicle, such as desk lamps, electric staplers or pencil sharpeners, clocks, radios/music playing devices, cell phone rechargers, power strips, and various devices requiring conventional transformers, give rise to similar constraints. Furthermore, in the event that the occupant ever needs to relocate to a new workspace, she may face a significant challenge in reconfiguring the new workspace according to her customized preferences.
In addition to issues of configurability within a personal workspace, lighting is also an important factor that affects personal comfort, health, and work effectiveness. Vision problems are one of the leading sources of complaints among office workers. Poor office lighting can cause eye strain and a decrease in visual acuity. Headaches as well as neck and back pains may occur as a result of improper or inadequate lighting that can lead, for example, to workers straining to see small or detailed items. Poor lighting in the workplace is also associated with an increase in accidents. For example, direct and reflected glare and shadows, as well as delayed eye adaptation when moving from brightly lit surroundings into darker ones (or vice versa), may prevent an employee from seeing a hazard or tripping over an object.
While some of the issues discussed above are presented in the context of a cubicle as an exemplary personal workspace, it should be readily appreciated that one or more of these issues may be relevant to other types of personal workspaces as well.